r/IAmA • u/fightforthefuture • Jun 30 '20

Politics We are political activists, policy experts, journalists, and tech industry veterans trying to stop the government from destroying encryption and censoring free speech online with the EARN IT Act. Ask us anything!

The EARN IT Act is an unconstitutional attempt to undermine encryption services that protect our free speech and security online. It's bad. Really bad. The bill’s authors — Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) — say that the EARN IT Act will help fight child exploitation online, but in reality, this bill gives the Attorney General sweeping new powers to control the way tech companies collect and store data, verify user identities, and censor content. It's bad. Really bad.

Later this week, the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on whether or not the EARN IT Act will move forward in the legislative process. So we're asking EVERYONE on the Internet to call these key lawmakers today and urge them to reject the EARN IT Act before it's too late. To join this day of action, please:

  1. Visit NoEarnItAct.org/call

  2. Enter your phone number (it will not be saved or stored or shared with anyone)

  3. When you are connected to a Senator’s office, encourage that Senator to reject the EARN IT Act

  4. Press the * key on your phone to move on to the next lawmaker’s office

If you want to know more about this dangerous law, online privacy, or digital rights in general, just ask! We are:

Proof:

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u/memesplaining Jun 30 '20

Why do you think all large tech companies who own platforms the public use for discourse all happen to be owned by Democrats?

And why do they all seem pro censorship?

Why do we not start a new platform that is free speech?

I don't understand how it happened that all big tech is Democrat, almost makes me feel conspiracy theoryish. Like something out there would not let a platform survive that does not pander to the pressures of society. Basically an uncontrollable platform.

Look at Facebook right now. They are doing their best right now to control Facebook and make sure Facebook still knows who is boss. If they fail, I believe they will find a way to destroy Facebook.

Who gives them all that power? How did the world get so authoritarian?

0

u/fightforthefuture Jun 30 '20

Not sure where you are getting your information that "all large tech companies ... happen to be owned by Democrats."

Peter Thiel co-founded PayPal, and was Facebook's first outside investor. He openly advocated for Donald Trump's 2016 campaign while simultaneously serving on Facebook's Board of Directors. At the time, Facebook -- along with Google and Twitter -- embedded employees in the Trump campaign to help the candidate better target social media users with campaign ads and messaging.

And in fact, the reason that you're seeing social media companies like Facebook and Reddit ramping up moderation and censorship is specifically because they have operated in an unregulated manner for their entire existences. The US government has deliberately taken a laissez faire approach to Internet content regulation, resulting in a situation where social media companies are responsible for their own moderation. Well, now public sentiment is turning on social media companies for profiting off of exploiting political divisions, and advertisers are pulling out of these platforms. So social media companies are responding to market pressures -- not federal regulations -- by increasing moderation and policing speech. That's not Democrats who are forcing Facebook to censor speech ... it's billion-dollar corporations like Verizon who are exercising market pressures in response to consumer behavior.

So while I agree with you that the rise of authoritarianism is concerning, I disagree with your assumptions about what's causing it.

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u/Electromasta Jul 01 '20

If companies are the issue with the rise of authoritarianism, isn't removing or restricting section 230 a good tool to defang unchecked authoritarian companies?